-Ottawa lost 3-1 last night in a game where all the scoring came in the second period. Craig Anderson looked human in making 31 saves, while Milan Michalek scored the only goal. Inexplicably Paul MacLean decided to dress Matt Kassian (who played more than Erik Condra), which is a rare poor decision by him. The choice for Andre Benoit to play instead of Patrick Wiercioch is puzzling, but I’m far less critical of that. The Sens played a mediocre first period (which was better than their awful first period in game one), then were punished for some sloppy defensive play in the second, before finishing with a listless third. Among the forwards the best line was Zibanejad‘s. Here’s the boxscore.
–Amelia L recaps the game and I have a pair of quibbles with her player comments: Benoit was okay, but he didn’t do enough in his limited minutes to enough to warrant special commendations; I also didn’t have a huge problem with Michalek‘s play.
–Jared Crozier has decided Sergei Gonchar is to blame for the Sens woes on the powerplay. There’s no analysis offered other than since Karlsson is hurt the onus is on Gonchar. It comes across as pretty simplistic and I don’t agree with it.
–Binghamton call-ups for black ace duties have been announced: Nathan Lawson, Mark Borowiecki, Cody Ceci, Stephane Da Costa, David Dziurzynski, Derek Grant, Stefan Noesen, Shane Prince, and Matt Puempel. Absent from this list is Mark Stone, but he assuredly is included. There are no real surprises here.
–Matt Weinstein wraps up Binghamton’s season and offers the following:
Every player that spoke to the media gave credit to their first-year coach, Luke Richardson, for keeping them together through roster upheaval and injuries.
Corey Cowick added:
Luke is everything. He is the reason why I’m probably going to get another contract with the Ottawa Senators. I can’t thank him enough for the opportunities he’s given me. He’s not far removed from playing and he can probably beat half these guys in fitness testing.
-I don’t think I mentioned Don Cherry’s ignorant comments about female sports journalists previously, but here’s a response to it from Monika Moravan.
-I have to give credit to the New York Islanders for refusing to roll over against the Penguins. I don’t know how many more games they can win, but I was happy to see them battle back in game two.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
eyeonthesens 